


Midnight Train to Georgia

by ObliqueOptimism



Series: A Friend of Mine [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Prostitution, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-11-26 06:31:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18177098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObliqueOptimism/pseuds/ObliqueOptimism
Summary: An old war buddy of Klaus's finds him before Klaus had gone to war. (Time travel gets confusing.)





	Midnight Train to Georgia

**Author's Note:**

> once again thanks to my babe, [sam](http://wickedlydevious.tumblr.com), for helping edit this fic. i've read a few fics that deal with this sort of idea but i hope i was able to put my own spin on it.

Phil slammed on his breaks, ignoring the horns blaring behind him as other cars rushed passed him. Staring out his window, Phil took a deep breath. There was a man in the alley, barely any clothes, lanky as could be, and appearing to talk to himself. Phil knew better, knew Klaus better, knew that Klaus didn’t know him right now and therefore would probably fight him like a homeless kitten.

Swearing to himself, Phil parked his car. He couldn’t just leave his brother in the alley. Just because Klaus hadn’t met him yet didn’t mean he could leave him alone. He wasn’t even sure if _his Klaus_ , the Klaus he got to know, was still alive. As far as he knew, he ran into the woods after Dave died and killed himself, got taken captive and died in a camp, or went back to the future he always said he was from. He hoped it was the latter.

Spook. They’d mostly called him that. Sometimes Future Boy. One time when he’d had a bad flashback or drug trip or just a fun ol’ time disassociating, Dave had called him Four. As if that was a name. Phil had no real evidence of that, other than he knew there were seven siblings and sometimes Klaus would refer to himself as the fourth one. 

To be fair, most of them didn’t fully believe Klaus. Some of his stories were just a touch too unbelievable, even after they knew he could see the dead. He’d even made the deceased appear a few times, when he was sober. But from the future? Chances were whatever shitty homelife he spoke of along with seeing the dead made him come up with the idea that a pansexual man who fell in love with another man during the war could be from a world where they could get married. 

But then the Umbrella Academy happened. He remembered the day all the women gave birth and Hargreeves adopted seven of them and thinking how weird it was. Wasn’t that Klaus’s last name? And the story seemed familiar? He claimed he didn’t have a real father, not a biological one, just a crazy rich abusive bastard. But then a little over a decade later, long enough that Phil forgot about the day the women gave birth, the Umbrella Academy was in the news and they stopped a bank robbery.

He’d dropped his coffee mug and broke it, staring at the TV. That was a young teenage Klaus. Even with the mask on, he knew that smirk. And the stories he said, talking about their powers and his power and the abuse and the dead brother and the future. 

The ones left from the squad immediately reconnected, calling each other and gossiping like Klaus used to.

And here Phil was, seeing a younger version of his friend, stumbling in an alley. They’d all known he was an addict. He’d gone through withdrawal a few times while with them, he was much too thin, appetite fucked from all the drugs he’d taken; he could out drink anyone. The time he’d out drank Ned, the biggest in the squad who had ate a full meal that day (unlike Klaus) and claimed he’d been drinking since he was twelve because that's what you did in the midwest, nothing but beer and corn, and Klaus had laughed in his face. “Got you beat by three years, baby! I started at nine!” Apparently the first time Klaus’s dad had thrown him in a mausoleum. 

Getting out of his car, Phil made his way over to the man who one day would save his life. “Hey!” Phil had to bite his tongue to stop himself from calling him by his name, or one of the fond nicknames. 

Klaus stopped talking to the air beside him and turned slowly, “Ah, buddy, look! A customer!” He laughed and winked at the air before turning to Phil, “You lookin’ for a good time, dollface?”

Phil blinked slowly. Yes. This was his friend alright. He’d been honest with each of them in the unit about everything, not afraid to be called names or even beaten up by the guys in the squad who were homophobic. _”Don’t worry! Some of my customers called me worse, sweetcheeks!”_ Klaus then would take the punch before he or Dave or one of the others punched the asshole back. “Not looking for a good time.” Phil said, walking towards Klaus slowly.

“Well then I don’t know why a man such as yourself would be calling out to a gal like me.” Klaus gestured at himself, in one of those crop tops Phil had seen him wear many a time. “Unless you’re one of them who gets your rocks off by beating up sweet homeless druggies.” He giggled at the idea, “Haven’t had a good _pounding_ in a while.”

“Maybe I’m the third one, shithead.” Phil rolled his eyes, “The kind of man who wants to make sure a skinny Spook like you gets some food.” He watched as Klaus froze in place, glancing to the air beside him for a split second and then gesturing to himself. He could imagine what the Klaus he knew would say: _”Moi?”_

“Moi?” This Klaus asked, almost bewildered. Phil almost laughed at how he had guessed his friend’s reaction. “And why would a guy like you want to take a dame like me for food unless it ends in you being a customer who maybe doesn’t want to pay?” He narrowed his eyes.

Phil wanted to hold his face in his hands. He knew Klaus would fight him on something as simple as getting something to eat. “Maybe a dame like you reminds me of a brother I once had,” He said sadly. Didn't need to say that the brother was Klaus himself.

That made Klaus pause again, “Shut it, Ben,” He said quietly to the air beside him. Ben? That was the dead brother. Of course Klaus would see him. He’d said that usually the drugs and booze would get the ghosties way, but a few would fight through the haze to be seen. He hadn’t even thought that his brother would be one of them. Maybe the only one. “I'm not on Earth to help everyone get over their deaths.” 

“Who says my brother is dead?” Phil suggested.

“You said ‘once had’. No other reason than the shithead you speak of is dead and long gone.” Klaus waved his ‘goodbye’ hand at him. “And I have enough sibling issues to work through before I get involved in yours.”

Phil was impressed with the almost sound argument. “I’ll be paying.” Thinking quickly, he added, “There is an all day diner nearby. I could go for some breakfast. Eggs, pancakes? Waffles?” He knew that Klaus loved breakfast foods. It was one thing they could always get him to eat. Not that there were many ways to get your hands on waffles when your main source of food was MREs. 

Klaus sighed dramatically, “Everyone loves waffles.” Shrugging, he finally started walking closer. “You said nearby? I shan’t be getting in your car. Stranger Danger, you know.”

Phil grinned, “That’s fine. It’s a few blocks away. I’m Phil by the way.” He held out his hand.

“Some call me Klaus,” Klaus said, glancing at how dirty his hand was before shrugging and shaking Phil’s hand. 

After that meeting, Phil would run into Klaus a few more times over the years. Klaus slowly warmed up to him. He always offered food, an ear to listen, never questioned when Klaus would talk to Ben, one time even got him to sleep on his sofa for two days before he ghosted. He knew that the Klaus he knew wouldn’t be around until some time after his dad died. So it wasn’t a surprise when a few days after he’d heard the news, there was a knock at his door. 

On the other side was the Klaus he knew, looking sadder than he’d ever seen him and dog tags round his neck. Beside him was his brother. Diego, Phil thought. He looked protective. About time, if someone asked Phil. 

Klaus greeted him with a loud, “Mother fucker! You asshole!” Before giving him a tight hug. 

Diego went from looking protective to confused.

“Hey, Spook. ‘Bout time you got back to the future.” Phil hugged him tight as he felt Klaus start to break down in his arms. “How long you been back?”

“Oh god, you know how I am with time, Phil.” Klaus paused, “Ben says it’s been a little over 25 hours.”

Phil ushered the brothers inside and sat them down on the sofa. Klaus between himself and Diego. He still had his arms around Klaus, “Shit, so Dave just--?”

“In my fucking arms,” Klaus responded, voice breaking. “And then I stop at a vet bar? It’s got a picture of us, Phil! All of us! With little Jamie? Before he got shot to shit? And those assholes at the bar kicked me out!”

“What? The one on 72nd?” Phil was surprised. They were usually a welcoming bunch. To him, at least. It figured that they’d take one look at Klaus and think he was lying. “I got a few pictures of us, you can have them.” He went to stand up and get them but Klaus pulled him back down.

“What the fuck?” Diego said, “What is going on? This morning you,” he pointed at Klaus, “woke me up and forced me to drive you here and then you start crying in his old guy’s arms? And talking about when you got drunk at the bar and started a fight?”

Phil held onto Klaus tighter at the harshness of Diego’s tone. “Klaus and I served together in ‘Nam.”

“No?” Diego sounded confused, “He just--”

“He just got back from 9?” Phil paused and waited for Klaus to quietly correct him, “10 months in Vietnam. Your brother is one of the best of us out there. He saved my life at least once. And that’s not counting the times he let us know when a village had been taken over by the baddies and the ghosties let him know it was a trap.”

“Aw shit,” Klaus muttered, tears starting to silently go down his face, “and I just left you guys!”

“Hey!” Phil said, forcing Klaus to look at him, “You think we held that against you? Ever? When we realized you weren’t crazy and we saw your skinny ass on TV? You think I held that against you when I bought you all that shitty diner food?”

“Oh my God,” Klaus groaned, “I can’t believe you kept finding me. I thought you were some crazy guy who was projecting his dead brother on me! Trying to save a stand in for some addict in your family.”

“Nah, just some crazy guy who was trying to help the addict in his family.” Phil grinned. 

“God, it took me far too long to realize that young you was old you.” Klaus shook his head, “If Ben had been around he would’ve put it together right away. He warmed up to you before I did.”

“Ah, he just liked that for some reason I was willing to help his brother.” Phil shrugged, “Doesn’t take a genius to realize.” He looked in the chair he assumed Ben was in, “By the way, Ben? I heard a lot about you during the war. This shithead won’t say it, probably, but thanks for putting up with him. He’s a stand up guy and I doubt he would’ve made it this far in his life without you watching out for him.” He then turned to Diego as Klaus clutched Phil tighter, seemingly stunned by what he said to Ben, “As for you? You all better treat Klaus better than before. I don’t have to hide behind the facade of a stranger anymore. We’ve saved each other’s lives, you understand? I went to war with Klaus. If I hear any of you disrespect him or he comes to me and I find out his family has wronged him? I don’t care if it was the time traveling assassin boy, you won’t see me coming. I may be old and worn out, but I was our sharp shooter.”

“Aw,” Klaus chuckled, “Phil you don’t need to threaten my family for me.”

“No,” Diego said, “Phil’s right. Yesterday I knew something was going on with you and I didn’t push to find out. Not really. I saw you staring at that picture and I never even thought to look and see what it was.”

“We have a lot on our minds.” Klaus suggested, “Its okay. End of the world is more important than me getting drunk and starting a bar fight.”

“Did you say it’s the end of the world?” Phil found himself asking. It wasn’t something he ever thought he’d say. 

“Apparently.” Klaus muttered. 

“Well,” Phil started, standing himself and Klaus up, “Let’s go save the world, Spook.”

“Hey, hey, hey now.” Klaus protested, “You don’t need to help. Look at you! You got old, remember? Don’t have flashbacks just because you’re seeing my pretty face.”

Diego looked like he was about to scold Klaus when Phil responded, “Your mug ain’t that pretty. No matter how often Dave read his stupid poetry to me about it.”

“Dave wrote stupid poetry about me?” Klaus asked, taken off guard.

“Fuck no. But he got real flowery when talking about you.” Phil teased, “And I know I got old, fucker. No need to rub it in my face that the best way to fight aging is time travel.”

“Nah, that’s Five’s thing. 58 years old, Phil. But he’s 13 again. Its wild!” Klaus grinned. 

“But I can still help. Idea man, I’m still a decent shot, or hell, even if you need to a ride somewhere.” Phil didn’t want to add that he mostly wanted to be there for Klaus. He had just gotten back from the war and loosing Dave. He knew his friend enough that he would not handle it well. And then adding the pressure of the end of the world? “Only thing I had planned today was to watch Ellen. And she’s not on TV until four this afternoon. Maybe the world will be saved by then.”

Klaus guffawed. “Yeah. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](http://obliqueoptimism.tumblr.com)


End file.
